Friday, February 20, 1998
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Micah Kroeger watches the ball head
for the hoop as he's fouled on a layup during
last night's win over Rice.
Defense putting UH
By Dave Reardon
back on right track
Special to the Star-BulletinAfter surgery to clear a blocked artery last month, one of the few things Riley Wallace is still allowed to eat is rice. And his University of Hawaii basketball team's defense devoured a potful last night at the Stan Sheriff Center, running away to a 69-50 Western Athletic Conference victory over the Rice Owls. The Rainbows' hustling defense didn't leave a grain.
"Their pressure really bothered us," Rice coach Willis Wilson said. "Their zone took away our passing lanes. It left the middle open, but we didn't get it in there nearly as often as we needed to."
Bobby Crawford and Robert Johnson combined for 53 points when these two teams met in Houston last month, and Hawaii barely escaped with a 65-63 victory. Last night Crawford was limited to a team-high 13 and Johnson to 6.
"Those two just killed us last time," Rainbow guard Alika Smith said. "I thought we did a great job on them tonight. We adjusted and they didn't adjust back. We started out in man just to get established and let them know we were in the building. Then we jumped into our bread and butter, the zone."
Smith's jump shot is another Hawaii staple that had often been missing from the diet of late. But he made 4-of-7 3-pointers last night as part of his game-high 20 points. Many of his points came off of transition plays keyed by the Rainbows' ball-hawking defense.
"We turned the ball over way too often (21 times)," Wilson said. "You can't win when you're defending two-on-ones all night. When you run two-on-one fast breaks it builds your confidence. You start to make good decisions on the move and it makes you look fast and it makes you look good."
Although Anthony Carter shot miserably from the field (2-for-12), he was a dandy distributor with 12 assists. Carter, using five steals to start fast breaks, consistently found Smith in transition.
"AC gets the ball to the open guy and tonight it happened to be me," Smith said.
In half court, it was Mike Robinson (14 points) under the basket, and on the perimeter.
Still, it was defense that made the difference, especially against the Owls' 3-point shooting. They hit 10-of-13 in Houston, but 5-of-16 last night.
"(Crawford's) a big-time player," Wallace said. "Every time he moved, someone switched and picked him up."
Robinson and Erin Galloway also played tough inside, blocking and altering shots.
Carter and Smith both declared the month-long Hawaii slump, in which they started the Western Athletic Conference season 3-6 after being nationally ranked, to be finally over.
"We're much more focused as a team now," Carter said. "We knew we were on the verge of being knocked out of the (WAC tournament), so everybody got it together."
Smith said the last two games, both victories, are Hawaii's "new WAC" season.
"We had a meeting and talked everything out," he said. "These are probably the best conference games we've played. it's like we're back the way we were before. I think we can keep it up."
Tulsa time
Tomorrow: Tulsa (17-9, 8-3) at Hawaii (16-7, 5-6), 4:37 p.m.
1997-98 Rainbow Men's Basketball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
